If they really want FBZ Act 2 to shake things up, the ship should either crash/or be on the way down, or maybe this is one of the later levels in the game and the damn ship goes all the way up to the top of the atmosphere to segway the inevitable space level.

Other people have suggested setting the second act during a storm, like Sky Base or Sky Deck, which would be really awesome in my opinion. Lightning could definitely work alongside the new magnet gimmicks. Although the trash-chutes are an unexpected and interesting addition, so maybe they're going for that angle instead.

Flying Battery looks pretty dang cool to me. It always the most exciting stage to me in Sonic & Knuckles, and if they can do things to alleviate those elevators, which were the worst part of the level from Sonic & Knuckles, I think I'd really enjoy it.

Also the foreground effects when you're outside the ship, being magnetized with the electric shield looks like it could make for some good "Gotcha!" surprises, this looks fine to me.

Flying Battery looks pretty dang cool to me. It always the most exciting stage to me in Sonic & Knuckles, and if they can do things to alleviate those elevators, which were the worst part of the level from Sonic & Knuckles, I think I'd really enjoy it.

Also the foreground effects when you're outside the ship, being magnetized with the electric shield looks like it could make for some good "Gotcha!" surprises, this looks fine to me.

Some of you folks really should lighten up, holy shit.

Speaking of "Gotcha!", I'm curious what sort of plan they've got for any fakeouts like the capsule miniboss. We've already got Green Hill Zone's Act 1 miniboss putting a huge twist on the GHZ wrecking ball boss, but it's hard to try to predict just what they may do this time around.

For what it's worth Flying Battery is one of my favourite zones of S3&K, I'm really happy with the choice. Sandopolis, the zone immediately after, on the other hand is one of my least favourite. Fortunately thanks to Mirage Saloon it's a safe bet it ain't in Mania. =P

Looking at the background during the outdoor areas, I'm willing to bet that the next stage will be Sonic 3's rep Icecap Zone. Door snowboarding and all

Yeah, that effect for FBZ's interior background does remind me of the effect used in Jazz Jackrabbit 2. Where the sky BG is 3D behind the parallax layers.

It's an hblank interrupt trick where the vertical scrolling position of the background is modified each vertical line (on old consoles, at least. Something like this would be done with a shader I'm guessing in Sonic Mania).

Looking at the background during the outdoor areas, I'm willing to bet that the next stage will be Sonic 3's rep Icecap Zone. Door snowboarding and all

To me the background just looks like lots of clouds. Is there something that makes you think it's IceCap zone underneath?

Ice Cap Zone was originally meant to follow Flying Battery Zone. You were supposed to snow board off of FBZ onto Ice Cap Zone. The original concept was for the snowboard to be a door from FBZ.

FBZ is actually a great zone for them to remake in Sonic Mania because it's the only zone in Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles that has no knuckles-specific paths, because he originally wasn't supposed to go to the zone at all. By remaking it in Sonic Mania, they can finally give Knuckles a proper version of the zone.

FBZ is actually a great zone for them to remake in Sonic Mania because it's the only zone in Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles that has no knuckles-specific paths, because he originally wasn't supposed to go to the zone at all. By remaking it in Sonic Mania, they can finally give Knuckles a proper version of the zone.

Considering that none of the levels shown so far have any considerable Knuckles-specific areas (if any at all, correct me if I'm wrong) I wouldn't be so optimistic about that.
Edit: Knuckles did have a different starting point in Mirage Saloon though so who knows.

Okay, question time. Seeming as there will be no Collector's edition on PC for us Europeans (what the hell?), I'm stuck between 2 choices:

a) Pre-order Sonic Mania Collector's edition on PC from Amazon.com (USA) and get it 4 days after release date (and pray it's not region locked) for £109 ($138).

or

b) Pre-order Sonic Mania Collector's edition on Xbox One from Amazon.co.uk (UK) for £79 ($98) and get it on release day, then buy Sonic Mania alone from Steam UK (I'm going to guess it'll be around £30 [$37]), and then sell the Xbox One key from the collector's edition on eBay?

What would you guys recommend? Or better yet, what have you PC European gamers decided to do? I'm sorry if this has already been covered, but I'm not going through 247 pages =P

I am from the UK and I am not bothering with the collector's edition. It doesn't offer anything interesting, especially for the price.
However, if I was in your position, I'd get the console version and buy the Steam key separately. That way, you don't have to worry about getting stung by customs, you'll get everything much quicker and you can sell the console key to make some extra money (although, I'd personally keep it as part of the set). It'll probably work out a little cheaper then getting the US version (especially as there will be no customs charges).